WWII

• Germany has to take all the responsibility for the War

  • Ethnic Germans felt like everyone was crapping on them

  Italy and Japan fought on the Allies side under the condition that they would receive land

  • They didn't get land

  Totalitarianism - one political party has total control over the entire nation

  • Trends: Charismatic, singular leader, govt has full control over economy, use military as police, govt issued propaganda, schools indoctrinate children, govt controlled media, total censorship of opposition
  • Emerges in Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia
• Japan

  • Fought with Allies for land, didn't get land
  • Try to form a Republic (govt reform), give all men the right to vote, labor reform laws, multiple political parties,
  • They blame the Depression on Democracy
  • Military takes over as head political party, Emperor Hirohito: over control of everyone, figurehead
  • Believe if they conquer all of Asia it will solve their problems
  • 1931, Japan invades Manchuria, China (Rape of Nanking, horrific, violent), beginning of War in Asia.
  • Take over railroad hubs, factories, farms, murders tens of thousands of people
  • Everyone is too busy to help China
• Russia

  • 1917, Bolsheviks gain control of Russia (USSR), led by Vladimir Lenin, kill Royal family (Romanov)
  • Lenin eventually dies, creates power vacuum, Joseph Stalin comes to take his place
  • Stalin is a true believer in communism
  • Great Terror - when Stalin got into office he executed his top officials because they were too good at their jobs.
• Italy

  • Fought with Allies, didn't get land
  • Bad relation with Austria who used to rule them
  • Have economic depression even during the Roaring 20s
  • Benito Mussolini took power one city at a time and would murder communists
  • Italy was a monarchy, the King didn't want to be killed by Mussolini so he just gave up his power
• Germany

  • No one knew how to run Weimar Republic
  • Hyperinflation - rapid inflation, burning your money was more useful than spending it
  • People quit using money and crime skyrockets
  • National Socialist German Workers Party - Nazis, fascist party
  • Hitler (Austrian) was a member of the Nazi party, fought in WWI
  • Beer Hall Revolt - after the war he and the Nazis plan the overthrow of the government, don't succeed, Hitler's arrested
• • Hitler blames getting arrested and the state of Germany on Jews and Communists (Anti-Semitism was normal)
  • Wrote Mein Kampf, his manifesto
  • Hitler's Solution - Lebensraum (living space, Germany) wants to restore Germany's land and gain new land, Eugenics (perfect genes, Volkish Thought - Germans were direct descendants of Aryan race)
  • 1932, Germany runs for President of Germany (over 1 mil. votes) and loses, President is worried so he makes Hitler Chancellor to appease Nazis
  • Hitler has Reichstag (Parliament) pass laws giving the chancellor unchecked power
• 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia

  • League of Nations, "We're with you in spirit," don't do anything to help
  • Didn't want war
• Hitler (Chancellor) starts violating the Treaty of Versailles


  LoN tells him to stop but he doesn't

  • Appeasement - give in because they don't want conflict
• Germany invades Czechoslovakia (Germany wasn't allowed to gain land)

  • Hitler wants to restore German land (Lebensraum)
• Austria and Germany cannot socialize at all, no trade, treaties, etc.

  • Anschluss - Hitler wants to reunify Austria and Germany
  • Germany invades Austria and Austria likes it

  League of Nations sits down with Hitler and makes him sign Munich Pact

  • Munich Pact - He's good with all the land he has now and he's not gonna take more land
  • LoN doesn't trust him and thinks that he's gonna invade Poland; LoN says that if he invades Poland then they will declare war on Germany
  • Hitler knows LoN will come to Poland's aid so he plans his strategy around that
• London Economic Conference - (US and GB), decide if they increase trade between each other then they can get out of depression, also decide to pass Neutrality Acts

  • Neutrality Act - they're not taking sides in the European conflict 


  Some Americans (minority) think the US should join the war, others think that it will worsen the Depression

  • Abraham Lincoln Brigade - go to Europe to join the war
• Blitzkrieg - (lightning war) fast, aggressive, loud
• Hitler goes to Russia and asks Stalin if he wants to help, Germany works with Russia so they don't have to fight two front war

  • Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact - not a treaty, just an agreement that they won't fight each other 


  September 1939, Germany and Russia invades Poland

  • Beginning of WWII
  • US still wants to be neutral
  • Neutrality Act of 1939 - US will sell weapons to anyone if they pay cash and transport it themselves (Cash and Carry)
  • The only person that meets these requirements is GB
• Hitler invades smaller countries: Scandinavia, Denmark, Luxenberg, Belgium, etc.

  • Trying to build up to invade France
  • France is not ready for war, focused on building up their defenses
  • Maginot Line - border of France constructed of barbed wire, walls, mines, etc. to defend France


  France thought they could defend Maginot Line for a year, it only lasted a month

  • Free France - (Vichy France), part of France that Hitler didn't conquer
• Germany wants to invade GB but because its an island they can either do it by land or sea

  • Operation Sea Lion - plan for an air force (LuFtwaffe)/aerial attack on GB
  • GB gets kids out of cities, anyone who has space houses them
  • The Blitz - Blitzkrieg in the air


  Germany wasn't able to successfully conquer GB
• The US (Roosevelt) and GB (Churchill) meet halfway (in the water) and signs Atlantic Charter which ties them politically

  • GB doesn't have money for Cash and Carry
  • Lend-Lease Act - the President can loan any weapons to anyone (aka GB)
  • US gives GB 6 warships as a "gift"
  • US puts weapons in Iceland that GB takes


  US keeps finding roundabout ways to help GB while technically retaining their neutrality
• Charles Lindbergh - against the US helping GB

  • Founds America First Comm. - stay out of other country's problems
• Election of 1936

  • Franklin Roosevelt v. Charles Lindbergh
  • Lindbergh says he will keep the US out of war with Germany
  • Lindbergh, "Is Germany even wrong though?"
  • Argues that Germany is good because they have a strong leader


  Roosevelt wins
• Germany issues shoot first

  • Shoots at a US ship but misses (US does nothing)
  • Shoots a US ship but no one is hurt (US does nothing)
  • Shoots a US ship and everyone on it dies (US issues shoot first)

  Basically war
• US and Japan have good trade relations

  • Japan invades Manchuria, people tell US to stop trading with them
  • Negotiations between the US and Japan stall (1941-1942)
  • Gen. Hideki Tojo (The Razor) - decides that Japan is done negotiating, want to take out any US threats
• • US' strongest base in the Pacific is Pearl Harbor, headquarters when they fight Japan
  • Japan wants to take out Pearl Harbor and its resources before the war even begins
  • December 7, 1941 - early in the morning Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, US troops were asleep, sunk USS Arizona (1000+ people), 2500+ people died overall
  • FDR addresses it on the radio, "a day that will live in infamy"


  December 8, 1941 - US declares war on Japan (joins WWII)
• Doolittle Raid - retaliatory attack against Japan, air raid on Japan's capital, not many people died but it boosts morale
• War Production Board - work with private companies to make resources for soldiers

  • Ford starts producing planes and jeeps
  • Some businesses recover, wages increase, and employment rises

  Office of Price Administration - sets wages, sets prices of necessary goods

  • Government gives slips to ration out goods (coffee, sugar, shoes, etc.)

  Production Miracle - the US is producing everything they need to during the war, and more than all of their enemy countries combined

  • Pulls US out of the depression, by the end of the war the unemployment rate is <2%
• • Older women (35+) start working, believe it's their wartime duty
  • Start working basic manual labor jobs
  • Come into contact with more women, workplaces weren't segregated
  • Gain organizational skills

  New need for childcare

  • Government spends $50 mil. + on childcare
• Women Propaganda

  • Victory Job - don't work for money, work for your country
• All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

  • First female baseball team
  • Sportsmen still wanted money but male baseball players were fighting in the war
  • Teams mainly in Illinois, Ohio, etc.
  • Women always had to look good, exploited them


  When the war ends the league fades
• A Philip Randolph - Civil Rights Leader

  • Double V Campaign - fighting fascism abroad and racism at home


  Randolph talks to FDR about his platform

  • E.O. 8802 - Executive order issued by FDR, can't discriminate when hiring if you're using government funds (everyone was during the war)
• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) - organize with other Civil Rights Groups to put on larger scale protests
• Eastern Front - middle of Poland, spot where England and USSR fought
• • Strategic Bombing - US, bomb during the day, bomb anything that may be helping them with the war
  • Saturation Bombing - UK, bomb during the night, bomb everything 


  Drop pamphlets before they drop bombs saying that they're gonna bomb that city, gives people a chance to escape
• Red Tails/Tuskegee Airman - Escort air bombers, none of their air bombers dies (but some escorts did)
• Black Panthers - Tank
• Women's Army Auxiliary Corp. (WAAC) - serve in segregated units, do supply runs, recon, etc. 


  Really successful in the army so other branches incorporated it

  • WAVES - Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service
  • WASP - Women Airforce Service Pilots
• US leads war in Asia

  • West Coast (CA) has more job opportunities
  • Southwest is starting to boom in population and industry
• Farmers have stable jobs

  • Landowners work on the farm
  • Farm laborers are recruited to join the war

  Bracero Program - recruit Mexicans for jobs in the US

  • hundreds of thousands of people
  • increases migration from Mexico to US (chain migration)
  • abusive program, laborers were treated like chattel slaves, government wasn't involved beyond recruiting them
  • unfair pay, dangerous pesticides, child labor
• Detroit riots - race riots in Detroit, 30+ people died, had to send into military

  • Also race riots against Mexicans
• Group of sailors on leave got in a fight with a Mexican-American kid, go looking for young Latino men wearing Zoot Suits to beat them to the brink of death

  Police arrests the victims instead of the sailors
• • Enigma - Nazi machine used to encrypt messages
  • Britain has to create the computer to crack the enigma

  Allies want a way to encrypt their messages

  • Navajo Code Talkers - used Navajo (Native American language) to translate already coded messages, no one was able to crack it
• Alien - someone from a country that the US is at war with

  • Have to sign up with the US government
  • Given travel restrictions, held in camps
  • After a year they remove Germans and Italians but leaves Asians


  E.O. 66 - Alien enemies (Japanese people) cannot live in any area deemed war zones

  • West Coast was a war zone
  • Japanese try to find the line at the end of war zone and settle there
  • Temporary Imprisonment - take land from Native Americans to make imprisonment camps for Japanese(family camps, singles camps)
• Korematsu v. US - 1944, Supreme Court ruled in US' favor, anything goes in a time of war